


Solve for "Why"

by VenueWings



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015), Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Alliances, Arguing, Car Chases, Chases, Enemies to Friends, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Escape, Fights, Friends to Lovers, Misunderstandings, Multi, Pining, Suspicions, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-02
Updated: 2016-04-02
Packaged: 2018-05-30 17:26:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,733
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6433555
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VenueWings/pseuds/VenueWings
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For the TFA Kink Meme: both the trios, forced to work together [the trios being rey+finn+poe and kylo+hux+phasma obv] what it says on the tin, at some point our heroes and villains are forced to work together. how you cry? well, anon doesn't know. pairings are optional but anon has a preference for rey/finn/poe and kylo/hux (though anon would definitely not say no to phasma/rey) </p><p>My scenario: Time travel, to the initial beginning of the Empire and the Prequels Trio so no one is tempted to kill any past figures to "change things for the better". Anakin's pretty sure he caught a Sith Lord, but the other strangers seem to have some(?) sway over the guy, and he's pretty sure the girl running wild with the Force needs a teacher.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Solve for "Why"

Anakin drove faster, pushing the flying speeder past its limits. Beside him Obi-wan held his position with a white knuckled grip, saying nothing as the vehicle they were sitting in let out another noise. They were clearing from the city now, the setting sun peered out at them from behind tall skyscrapers, and now the remaining rays streaked the sky with orange. Flying to their direction were other hovercrafts, their occupants driving just as widely as Anakin, only they were trying to escape - unlike the Jedi, the civilians had no intention of staying around the danger zone.

"I can feel it, master," Anakin's heart raced and his blood sang with adrenaline, but for once it wasn't because of his speed or the flight. "The force is wild, confused, and so..." 

"Angry," Obi-wan finished. He could feel it, something was causing a disturbance, something powerful. Foreign emotions that sizzled and cracked, screaming loud enough for any Force-sensitive to hear, and follow. Obi-wan and Anakin had been closest, luckily the cause of agitation wasn't in the city, but it was still too close for comfort, and so the two Jedi drove out there as fast as they could. 

"We go not knowing what they expect," Obi-wan said grimly. "This disturbance, it is strong, untamed." 

The civilians fleeing past them were frightened, their emotions blurring Anakin's senses. He did his best to ignore them as he raced past the crowd, "Do you think it a threat?"

"I do not like to assume," but the older did not dismiss the possibility and Anakin didn't point out what they were both thinking: they did not recognize the source of chaos, but something about it already seemed emotional, too human. If they couldn't recognize it then it may not be from the Council or their allies, and always there lurked another possibility: Sith.

Reinforcements were already being dispatched, but Anakin was going to be a first responder. In law enforcement sometimes this could be a bad thing, as it was the type of scenario where things could go south pretty quickly, and likely afterwards people questioned why they acted so badly in response. Other times, it meant the situation could be diffused quickly, nipped in the bud before it could escalate, Anakin almost didn't mind either scenario. 

"There!"

Had it not involved the Force, the Jedi might have been tempted to wait this incident out. There were two speeders on the airway, flying away from the city and clearly the source of the pandemonium as civilians tried to get out of the way. For the two speeders were repeatedly crashing into each other, screeching metal erupting as chaotically as their riders. Three in each, visible because one appeared to have no roof and the other appeared to have its roof ripped off. The six riders all appeared to be fighting and it was clear to Anakin they had found the source of the Force's agitation. 

One of the riders had a light sabre, an ominous red cracking with unstable and untamed power - one which Anakin did not recognize.

Kylo Ren stood atop the speeder, robes and hair flying everywhere as the wind howled around him but he was not worried. The Force kept him strong, where the speed might have knocked a regular person down - or worse, flung him off the speeder completely - he was unafraid. Rather he was angry, rage and fury clouded his mind as he raised his light saber and swung at his opponent, "Traitor!" 

On the other speeder Finn threw himself on the edge of the seats, the blade missing him by inches. The former storm trooper raised his blaster and fired point blank at his former lord, but Kylo Ren carelessly deflated the blasts. Some of them left marks on their speeders, and nearly hit Hux, who had just managed to jump across to the other ship.

"Watch it!" He snapped, he didn't have the Force to anchor him like Kylo Ren, and so had to crouch low onto the seats. At least until Poe, clutching tightly to his seat, aimed a kick at him. 

"Get back to your own side!" 

"Rebel scum!" 

The speeder gave another jerk as Rey attempted to lose their pursuer again. Kylo Ren found the distance between him and the storm trooper suddenly widen, but not for long. Phasma, the driver of his speeder, caught up and crashed into Rey's speeder again. Rey jolted forward in her seat, looked behind her and snarled. 

"Poe! You drive!" 

"In a moment!" Poe shouted back as he and Hux wrestled with each other, the latter having launched himself forward in an attempt to likely punch or strangle the Resistance pilot. Phasma's crash earlier might have helped with that but Poe was stubborn enough not to go down so easily. 

Behind Poe, Finn dodged another swipe from the light saber before swinging over the seats. He crashed right into Hux, which gave Poe the chance to escape. Hux's fist punched against the door, seconds earlier that had been where Finn's head was. Poe swung over into the front seats. 

"Come on Rey, I've got this!" 

Rey didn't even acknowledge, as soon as Poe had landed beside her she gave up control of the vehicle, already turning around and throwing her hands out. 

"Finn! Get down!" 

Without question Finn dropped onto the ground, Hux however was blasted off his feet into Kylo Ren, sending them both crashing back into their speeder. Phasma was forced to slow down to minimize impact, giving Poe the chance to pull forward as Finn whooped. 

"Hux!" Kylo Ren snarled, while Finn started to cheer. He pointed at the other driver in challenge.

"See that Phasma? You may be all tough but no one can beat Rey! None of you can beat - who is that?!" Finn's tone of voice actually had everyone turning to look behind at the speeder that had slowly been gaining on them. Anakin had drew the force around him, as protection from stray firepower, as a cloak of invisibility, but now he was right upon the strange fighters. Beside him Obi-wan stood up gracefully, light saber glowing in his hand.

"My name is Obi-wan Kenobi, and this is Anakin Skywalker, my Padawan. By order of the Jedi Council, stand down!" 

"Jedi council?" Rey repeated. 

"Kenobi?" Poe parroted. 

"Anakin Skywalker?!" Kylo Ren all but yelled. 

There was a brief pause. 

"I knew that scientist was suspicious!" Hux shouted. 

**

Hux and Phasma sat on one side of the hovercraft, stoic and silent, backs straight despite their handcuffs. Across from them, Finn fidgeted, eyes darting everywhere and nowhere, looking ready to run given the chance. Poe sat beside him, making faces at the video monitor that was observing the small cell, because Poe recognized it as one with visual-only and incapable of recording sound. Rey appeared to be the only one relaxed and stationary, her eyes closed and attempting to meditate. 

They were being processed separately from Kylo Ren, who the Jedi had taken under their custody. When their fight had been interrupted Rey had quickly surrendered, not wanting to give the Jedi a chance to use their powers and realize she could manipulate the Force too. Finn and Poe had followed her example, Hux and Phasma did too – after seeing Obi-wan wave his hand and put Kylo Ren to sleep, they knew there was no point in fighting. 

“We'll be taking this one, Jedi business,” Anakin had told their reinforcements; local law enforcement who while familiar with the Council, but did get annoyed when the Jedi just swooped in and took everything. “The others are all yours.” 

“Anything we should know?” The officers had eyed Hux especially, the fight earlier may worn his clothing and tore the First Order insigma into shreds, but it was obvious he was military material. Hux had remained silent, so had Phasma, Poe had not. 

“I'm sure you get this all the time, but this is all just one big misunderstanding,” Poe had smiled winningly at his arresting officers. “We were not trying to hurt anyone, and I'm sure you'll see those speeders are not listed as stolen...or listed anywhere...” 

“What's his name?” Obi-wan asked calmly, gesturing to the suspected Sith. 

“His name? He'll be dramatic about it but his name is...” 

“Ben,” Rey calmly declared, voice soft but firm, “His name is Ben.” 

“Oi! Before you go any further, I'll like to let you know that it seems like your vehicle sustained damage that seemed to have activated a recording!” One tech inspecting the hovercrafts had shouted. Rey stiffened, she and Poe exchanged looks just as recorded voices began playing: 

_“Anakin Skywalker?”_

_“Kenobi?”_

_“Jedi Council?”_

_“See that Phasma? You may be all tough but no one can beat Rey!”_

_“Hux!”_

_“Finn! Get down!”_

_“Come on Rey, I've got this!”_

_“Poe! You drive!”_

The recording was interrupted by another _bang_ as something in the vehicle combusted, letting out a steam of smoke and the tech jumped back, swearing. While everyone was briefly distracted, Phasma looked at Rey, who quickly dropped her hand but not before catching Phasma's eye. The former scavenger gave her a smirk that was more like shared amusement. 

Odd, that smirk given to her, Phasma was more used to Rey's challenging looks as they fought on opposite sides. 

“Looks like that's what we'll be getting from the recordings,” the tech sounded despondent, he seemed ready to expect someone to shout at him. Anakin, fellow mechanic, could relate. 

Later, he would wonder about the suspicious timing of the recording getting destroyed. 

“I'm sure you can find something else. For now, we'll leave this to your capable hands, you already gave us the names of everyone else. As for this one, I guess we'll call him...Ben,” Anakin eyed the unconscious man lying on the ground. Dressed in black robes, but no mask or face paint, for a guy capable of wielding a light sabre he almost looked normal. If he was a Sith, he had not taken to disfiguring himself yet in the pursuit of more power. 

“Where do you intend to take him?” the hint of concern in the redhead's voice gave Anakin pause, and he mentally reviewed his thought: if this Ben was a Sith, he had not become so fallen he had forsaken attachments. Which meant Anakin should really get the more experienced Jedi to take a look at this Sith, before tragedy struck. 

“What is your relationship with...Ben?” Obi-wan asked, voice kind and without the Force, because the redhead seemed to stiffen and everyone could see his guard was going up. Anakin was about to test if he could read minds now when...

“Jedi, I'm sure you can interrogate your prisoner and get your answers, but we should look at putting the others away,” one of the officers said. 

And so it was, that the Jedi left with their prisoner on a speeder, while the others were put inside the back of one of the hovercrafts. There had been some contention about putting the fighters in the same locked space, but they didn't have another hovercraft, stretched thin as they were due to several events happening in the city. 

In any case, it worked in the prisoners' favour, putting them all together within speaking range. When Poe realized there was nothing that could record their conversation he had started talking: “Was that you, Rey? You stopped them from hearing more of the recording?” 

“I didn't dare use too much of the Force when there were two possible Master Jedi in front of me, but I was able to blast the recording and get one of the officers to speak up before we could be interrogated. They already have our names, but I like to think they're simple and common names, we can keep using them so long as they don't find out anything more. Guess that means you won't be naming anything more.” She flashed Poe a brief smile, he returned it briefly. 

“You name one stormtrooper...” 

“Ex-stormtrooper,” Finn declared, Hux and Phasma seemed to grow stiffer, Rey ignored them. 

“I did a quick scan too, those people are not actors, and we really do seem to be heading to Coruscant at the time of the Galactic Republic.” 

“The Clone Wars?” Phasma's voice was steady, but those three words brought a sense of dread, even with their different versions all of them knew the chaos of that time. Luckily Rey was able to reassure them. 

“Not yet, no.” 

“But if we stay here any longer, we might end up getting involved, and potentially messing with the timeline.” Poe let out a breath, “We need to get back, and I assume the only way to do so is by how we came here – we need to find that scientist.” 

Finn nodded, “Given their species, at least we know we won't be looking for a child...” 

“We can't leave,” Phasma interrupted, “Not yet.” 

“Why not?” Finn tensed, “If you're thinking of giving the Empire a better chance...” 

“Don't be silly, even I know that may cause unnecessary risk.” 

“Then why shouldn't we be going as soon as we can?” 

“Because Lord Kylo Ren is not with us, and do you really wish to leave him alone here?” 

There was a pause, all of them had the knowledge and imagination to predict how well that could go. Rey nodded, “Fair point, as much as it pains me to say this, we should look at rescuing him as soon as possible.” 

“You shouldn't have surrendered so soon, now we're going to have to retrieve him from a stronghold of trained Jedi.” 

“You forget, _General_ , that you surrendered as well, or were you planning to attack them with your snores?”

Hux and Rey glared at each other, not surprisingly it was Poe who broke the tension. 

“No point in fighting now, we all know that Kenobi and Skywalkers were powerful users, they'll have put us all to sleep as soon as they suspect us of trouble. We would be completely defenceless then, but now we are not, and they didn't bother to check if more than one of us could use the Force. We have some surprise over them.” 

“Oh yes, the Force, wielded by a girl who abandoned her training midway to help save her friends.” 

“General,” Phasma spoke up because really, deescalating tensions had long become part of her job, “We are limited in our options, no allies or troops, for now we have a...common enemy, a problem we need to solve together, and do you not want to monitor their behaviour?” 

“Monitor us? Keep your friends close and your enemies closer?” Poe's smirk was almost reassuring in its familiarity. Privately, Phasma thought Rey's were preferable. “Don't think we won't do the same, as for your comment: Luke Skywalker also once abandoned his training to rescue his friends, he turned out fine.” 

“When Darth Vader first met Skywalker, he ended up killing an old man instead, and now Lord Kylo Ren has done the same. I am not sure what we are comparing,” Phasma stated. She didn't sound malicious when she mentioned Han's death, which was probably what made Rey decide not to attempt a more hostile use of the Force. Taking a deep breath, she tried to settle. 

“We are still far from civilization, and the Jedi appear to be going to the same direction as our hovercraft." Rey had been cautious when she spread her Force range, ready to pull back any moment, but the Jedi gave no sign of noticing her and appeared to be traveling just slightly ahead of the prisoner transport. "There's no point in trying anything now, even if we're not hundreds of feet in the air we are surrounded by plains, easy targets for our captors. Once we reach Coruscant we'll make a move, that way in our escape we can blend into the crowd.” 

Hux eyed her suspiciously, watching as she folded her legs and closed her eyes for meditation. The petty part of him almost wished their transport was not so smooth, if only so the Padawan could be constantly interrupted from attempting to sit still. “You are confident enough to break out?” 

“I assure you, it will take more than six walls to hold me in.” 

“Six walls?” 

“We are in a cube, try to keep up.”

**Author's Note:**

> The last part of this chapter was inspired by a certain TV scene, a reader from the TFA Kink Meme recognized it, do you? 
> 
> Originally posted on March 2016


End file.
